Opinion
Friday 3: Kuki 101: work before play
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I feel sick and I wonder if taku iti tangata feel this maki-ness also. It’s that sick feeling you get when you have been betrayed before your own eyes. In 1998, the Cook Islands were referred to as sparsely populated islands with a resource of minerals conservatively estimated at $150 billion dollars in […]
Thursday 2: The quest for meaning of life
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I admit to a personal fascination for science – sort of a ‘quest for the meaning of life’ as Keith Koekoe would put it. For example, 20 years ago I dug 40,000 fossil bird bones out of the soil of Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Group, South Pacific. I used these fossils in […]
Thursday 2: Meitaki e Gumby
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Meitaki maata kiakoe Sam Crocombe no toku mataora i taau i tuatua mai kia matou no runga i taau e rave nei, i te aruaruanga kia tu tatou i tetai ava (port) maata, kia tomo mai te au pai mamaata turoto ki roto i to tatou ava, i toou tereanga ki Marike. Kua […]
Thursday 2: Put $3m into Punanga Nui
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, May I suggest that the ‘stimulus package of $3 million’ that the government has already budgeted and earmarked for struggling businesses, be looked at again. One writer suggested that this money be diverted to promotion of tourism, which to me will be hard to monitor and gauge the actual dollar for dollar value […]
Tuesday 7: SMOKE SIGNAL- We sell our souls but can't go solar
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
The drawings for the new airport terminal buildings don’t seem to show the north facing roofs covered every square metre in photovoltaic panels, observes a signaler, who writes: Surely we are not going into a building from the past? We sell our souls to the Tiger of the East for millions of dollars to put […]
Tuesday 7: More trips by MPs, and more spending
Wednesday 8 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, There appears to be no real financial planning by the DPM and Sholan on this massive $50 million loan from China. On top of this, another $20 million seems to be given as extra under a grant. Government has not shown just how much our road and water repairs will cost, but at […]
Wednesday 1: The reason behind it all
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, There is nothing confusing about my letter of Saturday March 28 in which I challenged all parties meaning the Evans, the Chittys, the Steadmans, the Wraggs and whoever else wants to join the debate (as they put it) to appropriate the answer ie the truth to man’s origin. Read my letter properly and […]
Friday 27: Promise us a date DPM!
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, According to your front page article on March 20, Sir Terepai pledges to run the Sunday flight referendum. You have quoted Sir Terepai saying that government will deliver the promised referendum on Sunday flights to Aitutaki. He further states that he is a man of his word, yet he cannot say when the […]
Wednesday 1: Not within my brief!
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, In response to your smoke signaller’s query of March 30, the enquirer is confused. Contrary to claiming the feng shui of Avarua is “wonderful” during my talk of last Friday night, what I actually said was, “it has classic feng shui”. This was in reference only to the fact that Avarua has rising […]
Friday 27: Be happy and get on with it
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I find it very difficult to understand the logic behind Mr Poila’s threat to reject the EU funding to build a cyclone centre in Pukapuka just because a Pukapukan designer missed out on the tender. Why not be HAPPY and thankful that EU has come to the party to fund the project? I […]
Wednesday 1: Survey shows departure tax hike no good for visitors
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Seven out of ten people say they will be less likely to visit the Cook Islands because of the hike in departure tax, according to a poll I have been conducting for the past month. Your readers may remember I wrote to you at the end of February expressing my personal concern at […]
Thursday 26: SMOKE SIGNALS Mind boggling logic
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
The smoke signal came yesterday from a business person: The DPM may be indeed disappointed in the Chamber’s criticism, but there are also many many Iti Tangata, who are also taxpayers, who are likewise disappointed in government, and how they are running this country down, not only in the present time, but also for the […]
Tuesday 31: One point shouldn't affect 100% Wale
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, The successful tender for the Pukapuka contract IS still going to an overseas company using local consultants. Chris Manu would be involved no matter who got the job, as he was subcontracting his services to all four other tenderers including Romanisdesign. Regarding papa Tere Temu, he was left out of our own cyclone […]
Thursday 26: A good book
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, After reading Rev Steadman’s and Brian Chitty’s recent attacks on the scientific basis of evolution, I suggest they read Prof. Richard Dawkin’s bestseller ‘The God Delusion’, probably the most influential book on this subject ever. I am sure we all agree that access to information is the corner stone of a healthy informed […]
Tuesday 31: Tender criticism not right
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, As Mr Polia has chosen to name me in his rather defamatory letter to the editor in your issue of Friday March 27, I feel I should have the right of reply. Contrary to Mr Polia: 1. The committee consisted of Mac Mokoroa, Tingika Elikana, Steve Anderson, Chris Reynolds and myself. It did […]
Thursday 26: Pay query
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I note with a wry smile the Office of the DPM putting out a paid advert to combat comments made by the Chamber of Commerce in Tuesday’s edition of your paper. Can we establish whether this money to pay for this advert was paid from the DPM’s personal income, or was it paid […]
Saturday 28 March: SMOKE SIGNALS - Smashing interest rates
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Westpac’s new housing loan interest rate of 9.95% (about 10%) is a classic example of commercial banks and the government being not very successful in their bid to curtail our economic predicament, says a signaller. “The more our commercial banks try to reduce interest rates as a result of market pressure and community criticism, the […]
Thursday 26: Minister 'all ears'
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, If I could correct a few matters. First I am not going to Queenstown for the Pacific Games Council meeting, although I have been invited. But I will attend the Oceania Games Council meeting later in April and make a presentation there. Secondly, I am not on the Seabed Minerals Bill Parliamentary Select […]
Saturday 28 March: So clever
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, You cannot appropriate what you don’t know. Our local papa’a are so clever that it prompts me to ask Mr Evans and his worldly buddies as to, for what purpose is he here on earth and where did he come from? Then if he cares to answer as truthfully as he alone can, […]
Thursday 26: Canadian civil engineer volunteers to help
Wednesday 1 April 2009 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, My wife and I have been visiting the Cook Islands since 1992. Since I retired from the consulting engineering business, we have been coming for two months to escape our cold winters in Canada. We read the Cook Islands News every day and take a keen interest in the local issues. It is […]